The Message

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I knew enough to understand that the prime purpose of any “settler organization” was to push Palestinians out and to move Jewish Israelis in. One method of effecting this was to declare a piece of land to be an archaeological site, thus allowing the state to assert an interest in how that site is used. In Area C, where Nasser and all Palestinians are subject to Israeli rule, state interests can mean outright eviction. Here in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians have “residency”—not citizenship—eviction is more complicated. So while the state declaring your home an archaeological site may not lead to outright eviction, it does allow for excavation in front of—or tunneling directly beneath—your home. And in the case of the City of David, it also allows for flooding your neighborhood with tourists hopped up on tales of religious jingoism, primed to regard you as an occupier of their God-given land. The aim, Alon explained, was to create a “correlation between Jewish heritage and ownership” and to birth a generation who could not imagine anything other than complete Jewish rule over Eretz Israel.